17 January, 2024
NAB to abandon Pittsworth
NAB has announced plans to close its Pittsworth branch - something that will not come as a shock to many as the institution continues its seemingly relentless effort to pull away from serving customers face-to-face in country areas.
Only a few months ago, the NAB told The Pittsworth Sentinel that it had no plans to close the Pittsworth branch.
However, an empty assurance coming from NAB is nothing new to customers in many towns across southern Queensland including Clifton, Allora and Esk where branches have been closed much to the annoyance of locals.
The Pittsworth NAB branch is the last of the “big four” to get out of town.
It will close on Thursday the 18th of April.
The only financial institution remaining with a local branch will be the Heritage Bank.
However, there will be limited banking facilities - deposits and withdrawals - available through the Pittsworth Post Office.
As with all other local branch closures, NAB claims its decision comes on the back of more customers choosing to do their banking online.
The bank claims the decision was “difficult” - something local customers will find hard to believe and certainly hard to accept.
NAB told local customers that before making its decision to close Pittsworth, it took a lot into consideration.
This included the fact that over the past few years, fewer customers were going into branches to do their banking and foot traffic has lessened.
It said approximately 61 per cent of its customers in Pittsworth have only visited the branch once in the last year and more than 69 per cent of customers are also using other locations including Clifford Gardens in Toowoomba.
Of course, this may have been as a result of NAB restricting its opening times to just three hours per day, (9.30am to 12.30pm Monday to Friday) at Pittsworth.
NAB has advised its customers that after April 18th they can do face-to-face banking at the Clifford Gardens branch in Toowoomba.
The bank has told business customers who make regular business deposits or require business change, that additional options are available, although these are not detailed.
MILLMERRAN CUSTOMERS SHOULD TAKE HEED
It may be a cynical thought, but it is noted that NAB does not include use of face-to-face banking at its Millmerran branch as one of the options available.
Perhaps customers in that district should be ready to accept the inevitable in the not too distant future?
